


Overclocked

by egnirys



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 21:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7008658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egnirys/pseuds/egnirys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not really a soulmate timer AU per se, just Alphys testing an invention... Mettaton is the guinea pig, and Alphys definitely has some specific results in mind...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overclocked

Even after the barrier broke and monsters had reintegrated into human society, with life for both species now better than ever... some things never changed. Like having to be the guinea pig for all Dr. Alphys' weirdest ideas. Yes, she was high up among the best friends Mettaton had ever had, and they'd fully reconciled after he'd realized all she was going through, and just how much he owed her. Hell, his current existence was one of her weirdest ideas, and it worked. But still, some of the others... well, sometimes you made sacrifices for friends. Sometimes they were big ones.  
“See, look. This watch wristband thingy is able to tap directly into the power of your SOUL, as well as the SOULs of other monsters. That way... it can tell who your soulmate is. As soon as you put it on, it starts counting down to the moment you meet them. The moment you say something to them, or they say something to you... it hits zero and goes off. It takes all the guesswork out of dating! Just think of how much different things would have been if... I... hadn't... you know...”  
Mettaton at least had the mercy not to address the countless lives altered, often quite negatively, by Alphys' attempts to impress Asgore, and then the fact that she hadn't even ended up with him in the end... ugh. But he still wasn't about to let himself be the test subject for this device without challenging it, not as though he believed it would do anything. “What if you've already met them before you put it on? Does that ruin the whole thing?”  
“I think... it'll just... it'll count down to, um, the next time you see them... I think... or maybe the next time you actually talk to them, or... something like that... I think.”  
“That's a whole lot of thinking, darling, and not very much knowing.”  
“That's why it has to be tested!”  
“Who've you tried it on so far?”  
“Me and Undyne... they both started buzzing right away as soon as we both had them on.” Alphys was blushing at this.  
“Well, then, that could mean it doesn't do anything--”  
Alphys was forced to repeat herself. “That's why it has to be tested!”  
“That's... not reassuring.” It wasn't.  
“Just try it, okay? What's the worst that could happen?”  
Mettaton remembered the vision of a blobby, slimy, half-amorphous creature resembling a sea slug, and a head with... more sharp fangs than, uh, head. Its voice echoed throughout the watery cavern in a plaintive, somehow loud whisper, calling for a lost family member... calling for Shyren. Embracing her with its bubbly tentacle arms. Simultaneously remembering a life it—she—thought she would never get to return to, and knowing she would never really be able to return to it. He tried not to let his cringe be visible. “...I'm not even going to answer that.”  
Alphys tightened her claws around the device with a whine. “Mettaaatonnn, whyyy won't you help meee?? You're being sooo meeaannn.”  
“Aaaaaaaaalphyyyyyyyyyyy, do you reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally think yoooouuuuu can whine more than IIIIIiiiiiiIIIIIIIIiiiIIIIII can whiiiiiiine?” The sound of his robotic whining slowly became shrill enough to rival microphone feedback. Only when Alphys was clutching her head did he stop. “Besides. Are you using me because I'm here, or because... you have someone in mind that you think this will set me up with?” He was afraid he knew the answer to that already... but it was all right. It wasn't like this thing would work, would it?  
“Um... I don't know?”  
“Oh, you do know, so don't try to pretend you don't... but I think that means I don't want to know. ...Anyway.” Mettaton thrust his hand toward Alphys in a dramatic flourish. “Fine, I give up. Go ahead and ruin my life. Have fun viciously baring any and all deep feelings I may or may not have that I don't even know about myself, thereby making a complete and utter mockery of my reputation in every possible way.”  
As she snapped the watch onto her friend's wrist, lining it up and pushing his glove out of the way so the metal of the device pressed against the metal of his arm, Alphys let out a high pitched squeal of her own. “Thank youuuu, thank you thank you thank you thank youuuu—but... stop being a drama llama about it.”  
“Alphys, darling, it is my job to be a drama llama. About everything.” Mettaton smirked, about to laugh it off, but realized it might also be a good idea to check the timer itself. How long would it be? Was it short enough that he could reasonably estimate what he'd be doing when it went off? Reasonably estimate who he'd be around... who this thing would be aiming him at?  
Because it's not like he had anyone in mind. It's not like he had a kind of tiny little crush on someone already, that he kept trying to suppress in the interest of his reputation. There was no one incredibly sweet and precious and genuine in every way, on the outer edges of his friend circle, that he would absolutely love to get to know better. Nope. Definitely not.  
Not knowing how things were going to turn out was always unsettling, and he supposed that was why Alphys had even tried to build this device. But, upon agreeing to this, it seemed possible that knowing could be worse. And it was. It was worse.  
The timer went off in two days.  
Technically, two days and two hours.  
In two days, he was going to be on the third episode of that live talk show thing Frisk had somehow gotten set up in their role as ambassador, designed with the idea in mind of promoting unity between humans and monsters. He had a human co-star, and then there were supposed to be various guests besides that, alternating between human and monster. There was also a live studio audience.  
That was what was going on in two days. But, specifically, in two days and two hours... that helped narrow it down even further where he'd be.  
In two days and two hours... he would be right in the middle of being on that show. Right. In the middle.  
And, somewhere in that crowd... there would probably be just the one he'd feared it would be.  
“I AM GOING TO DIE,” Mettaton said, shrieking at pitches once again reaching that of microphone feedback, flinging himself backward. At least having the decency to aim for the couch, because even though Alphys had just ruined his life, she didn't necessarily mean to, and he didn't want to have to make her fix him. Fix him again. Fix him again, before... before...  
Before he was surrounded by people, humans and monsters, lots of them, in public, on live television, with who the hell knows how many people watching, when the damn thing went off, and even if he didn't wear it, even if it wasn't there to go off, whoever it was, they'd be there, just breaking into his life however, in public, on live television, and it would be bad, no, not just bad, awful, terrible, and it was just then when he noticed Alphys trying to cover both her ears with one arm and grab a wrench with the other that he realized he was still making the noise.  
When he stopped making it, she peered over cautiously, still gripping the wrench. “...That bad?” He held up his wrist, and she began counting on her claws right away. Adding up the numbers, she seemed to reach the same conclusion he did, her jaw dropping. “Wow... that bad.”  
“See? SEE?” He had to silently count random numbers, just to keep himself from freaking out more and spiraling back into making the noise. “I'd tell you to take the damn thing off, but now I know... and I can't un-know. Now I'm going to be on edge for two whole days until whatever it is that's going to happen happens, and I can tell—I can just TELL—whatever it is, I don't want it to happen.”  
“Well... at least then we'll know if it works or not?” Alphys said, her voice even tinier than normal, which was a feat.  
“You are so lucky I owe you my entire existence, woman. So. Lucky.”

 

The next two days were a blur. Every moment, all Mettaton could think of was... T minus 46 hours until inevitable utter humiliation. T minus 45 hours until inevitable utter humiliation. T minus 44 hours until inevitable utter humiliation and probably he should plug himself in soon because it must use up an awful lot of battery power to continuously freak out about how it is T MINUS 43 HOURS AND 57 MINUTES UNTIL INEVITABLE UTTER HUMILIATION. The way it consumed his thoughts, he didn't even really put much thought into anything he was doing. His daily tasks were almost... well... robotic.  
It was good he was naturally so fabulous that he didn't have to put much upkeep into his perfect appearance, didn't have to do anything like apply makeup, not that human makeup stuck to metal anyway, which was something Alphys was supposed to be working on, figuring out makeup that could be applied to metal and still removed at the end of the day, but he couldn't worry about that now, because it was T minus 1 hour and 45 minutes until inevitable utter humiliation.  
There was only one way to solve this. The same way every other problem ever in the whole world could be solved. A foolproof, flawless plan.  
Pretend the problem is not happening.  
Nothing was wrong. The most famous monster ever, already much more famous on the surface than he ever was underground, nearly the poster child for monsterkind as it reunited with humankind, slowly becoming unwillingly so once he realized how much responsibility that entailed, peace between the two races hanging in the balance... he was not going to be humiliated upon having whoever his “soulmate” was revealed on live TV. No. He was too fabulous to ever be humiliated by anything, and so, nothing was wrong.  
It almost worked.

 

The third episode of the monster and human talk show was going well thusfar. The discussion had turned to differences between monster and human values. Mettaton's costar Hannah, a smartly dressed young brunette woman, who was almost as pretty as he was—ALMOST, though—was speaking. “But, it's like, humans are always complaining about the next generation, even though it's dumb because every other generation before them complained about the next generation. They're always like that they're too dependent on computers and technology—oops, uh, was that offensive? Well, whatever. Do monsters do that too?”  
“Hmm. Well, you see, it's hard to tell, because in the underground, technology was always at least several decades behind aboveground human technology. Because the only way we had to get materials for it was to go through garbage that flowed down waterfalls into the caverns. The only technological items we had access to were things that humans had literally thrown out.” To be nice, he held back the comment about anime. But it was in his head.  
Hannah furrowed her eyebrows at Mettaton. “So then what are you made of?”  
Wow. The gall of this human. Well, she was more tolerable than some of the other ones, like those parent teacher association women always causing trouble for Frisk at school... anyway. “Well, personally, I quite transcend the limits of technology. You see, robots are made of metal and magic. Metal AND magic, and BOTH parts are quite important. Most of the material I've been constructed from has changed over time, since as long as the core is intact, anything on the outside can be added or removed. When I was first constructed, I was a simple rectangular box.”  
Mettaton had gotten so caught up in talking about his favorite topic—himself—that he didn't notice it was now T minus a single digit number. “Of course, given that I just radiate glamour no matter what shape I happen to be in, even in a simple geometric form I was just so magnetic—pardon the pun—that my lovely sweet darling fans were able to already recognize me as gorgeous--”  
Then it happened. The buzzing.  
At first it was barely audible, but it got louder in several seconds, as alarms often did. Now it was time for a save, one that was... surprisingly graceful.  
“Oh, would you look at that. I hadn't mentioned it before, but recently I agreed to be a guinea pig of sorts for a timer device that's supposed to go off whenever I first speak to my soulmate... and it's just gone off as I addressed my fans in general. I suppose that means... if you have any interest, better start competing.” He held up his hand in front of his face and examined the timer oh so casually, like he wasn't silently freaking out at all. In fact, right now, he... wasn't. “Hmm, that could be a show of its own. Possible soulmates competing for my affection... well, I'd have to see if there was enough interest first. Anyone willing should contact my official Undernet page for that. Anyway...”  
The show moved on, the way it usually did, and the incident with the timer was soon forgotten. He only briefly considered Alphys might be disappointed that the whole incident wasn't indicative enough of anything for her to form a conclusion, but hey, nothing bad happened to him, especially not in front of anybody. And it could have meant any fan. Any fan at all. It didn't have to mean the one he was trying not to think of as adorable. Not at all. Carrying on, he'd almost forgotten about it... once again, almost.

 

It wasn't until he was backstage that the proverbial waste hit the air rotation device. Frisk was there, as usual, giving a silent thumbs up as they briefly looked up from scribbling something down on a homework sheet. Sans was there, leaning against the wall and texting someone, in disinterest to his surroundings, also as usual. He was clearly only serving as basic supervision for Frisk, who probably didn't even really need it, given what they'd already been through. Alphys was there, and it was only when he noticed her grin that he remembered all the crap that was happening. He'd never seen her nervous reptilian features curl into quite so smug a smirk before. Things hadn't even really been embarrassing at all yet, but...  
“M-METTATON!!!”  
The voice coming from behind him was unmistakable. That overexcited bubbling fountain of a voice, bordering on shrill with erupting joy, the enthusiasm for life audible in everything he said, in a way that was just so precious—NO. Oh no. Oh no...  
“U-UM! ALPHYS TOLD ME ABOUT! The TIMERS! Those timers she was working on! AND! She gave ME one of them! AND! I NOTICED! That yours went off about twenty minutes ago! AND!!! YOU WOULD NEVER BELIEVE WHO ELSE'S TIMER ALSO WENT OFF TWENTY MINUTES AGO!!! …THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!!”  
The poor skeleton sounded so nervous, even though he'd clearly never admit to that. He kept rising in volume the entire time, as if the shaking could somehow be kept out of his voice by shouting. Mettaton turned around to acknowledge the poor guy, who was not only audibly but visibly shaking, but gesturing intensely as he spoke, once again like that would make up for how nervous he was, and make him look like he was playing it cool. It was so silly. Silly and cute and—well, goddamnit. Mettaton could feel himself getting warm from embarrassment... secondhand or otherwise. Possibly both.  
He should have known this would happen. He should have known Alphys would make this happen, whether the timers worked or not, even if this was just an elaborate ruse of hers. After all, Mettaton had been charmed by Papyrus since the first moment they'd met, when they ended up hanging out at Undyne's upon Alphys' insistence. Papyrus was all gushy and freaking out because he finally got to meet his favorite star, and of course Mettaton would like anyone who offered him free flattery. But Papyrus was just so... earnest about everything. He was never the brightest, but... he put his whole heart into anything he did. And it was just... well, it was something. Something that was just so heartwarming... yes, it was enough to make anyone feel all warm inside...  
“SO I GUESS! THAT MEANS! YOU HAVE TO DATE ME! I MEAN, GET TO DATE ME! BECAUSE ANYONE SHOULD WANT TO DATE THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! SO CLEARLY, THE ONLY OTHER PERSON GREAT ENOUGH TO DATE THE GREAT PAPYRUS... IS THE GREAT METTATON!!! NYEH HEH HEH!!!!!” Yeah... point proven.  
He should probably say something back now, something to spare the poor skeleton his awkwardness. Something simple, something that was definitely a yes but also very casual, to act like this wasn't a big deal. To act like the combination of all these feelings—embarrassed at himself, embarrassed on behalf of Papyrus and his heartwarming earnestness, those warm fuzzy feelings from being around someone he really did like—wasn't making his internal temperature rise into the 160's. Which was... well, it was kind of sort of maybe really bad overheating. Yes, there was no way this could possibly end well...  
“M-mettaton? A-are you all right?” Papyrus' eye sockets gleamed with concern that was as sweet and genuine as the rest of him. Way to make it worse. Now even Alphys' grin was gone, as she dug through her bag for tools or something, knowing her creation was about to collapse on itself from heat. Sans, though, just let out a chuckle from the corner... and, as the saving grace, finally gave Mettaton's improv skills something to work with.  
“Relax, bro. All this timer stuff is pretty intense. I wouldn't be surprised if it's enough to get a robot... overclocked.”  
“SANS!!! This is NOT the time for PUNS!”  
Focusing the last of his energy, Mettaton was able to get one last statement out before shutting off as a safety measure. “Oh, I think it is, darling. I mean, what else am I to say, in such a HEATED moment... besides that this whole ordeal has me... FALLING for you?”  
“N-NYEH???” It was Papyrus' cute little flustered gasp that reassured Mettaton he was indeed still fabulous, even as he shut down and fell backward. He didn't know what he'd wake up to upon cooling down enough to restart, but... he was pretty sure it would be something good, as he felt gloved hands catch him and give him a reassuring squeeze. Damn it... whether this was a real experiment or just some ploy, he liked the results.


End file.
